Today we went for an urban walk, and stumbled upon the second best tamales I’ve ever had. (Any tamale I ever have now days would only ever be second best, at most, because the best tamales of my memory [made by my friend Marta Torres and her family] are intertwined with friendship and happy memories.)
On a whim (because we were picking up some logs to chop into firewood, nearby), we decided to go for a family walk, starting near the Kirkwood end of Grant’s trail. Our goal was to walk for about an hour. I picked the walking route, based on a driving route through a network of neighborhoods, that I have long taken to get into north downtown Kirkwood. As the walk continued, we remembered that the purveyor of all good things yeasty and freshly baked, Great Harvest, was in the direction we were heading. So we decided to try to reach that as our half way point for this out-and-back walk. What we ended up finding, in addition to hot, tasty fresh bread, was a tamale vendor at the nearby Kirkwood Farmer’s Market. Our food destination walk became an amazing brilliant idea, as we savored (or snarfed down) delicious freshly steamed tamales, before retracing our steps.
The route took us past a great number of interesting and likely historically significant homes, which we all enjoyed seeing. To be honest, we were more like “gawkers”. It led to conversation, and the walk flew by. Adding some scrumptious food on the middle put the walk over the top. I highly recommend a food destination out-and-back long family walk, if you have the chance. And I doubly recommend the tamales made by The Tamale Man. Delightful!!
Route: Park at the north Grant’s Trail lot, just north of Big Bend, off Holmes and Melshire. Head north on the trail, crossing I-44, to the trail end. Continue heading north on Holmes. Turn left on East Monroe. Turn right on S. Woodlawn Ave. Turn left on E. Argonne Dr. Continue on E. Argonne to the Farmer’s Market (on Saturday mornings) and Great Harvest (across the street from the Kirkwood Train Station). Re-trace your steps for the return route.
Distance: 3.2 miles
Walking Time: Approximately 70 minutes
Bring: Cash for food treats
Favorite Walk Snacks: Great Harvest thick bread slice + butter samples, The Tamale Man chicken and pork tamales with homemade salsas. (I hear the vegetarian tamales are awesome, too; we filled up and ran out of cash before trying those… next time!)
Family Trail Rating: Easy, Tasty
Pretty Blue Cere 
Oh my gosh you were right by us! On Sundays, the kids and I walk into Kirkwood from our home in Glendale and go to the Farmer’s Market. Nattie and Josie love the samples of watermelon and honeydew. While there we keep our fingers crossed that a train rolls through. Then, we head over to Kaldi’s for smoothies, stop by the little Walker Park and then head home. It’s heaven and I’m so happy you got to experience a little bit of it!
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Oh how funny! We are in Glendale quite often, since we go to church there, but I had not stopped at the Farmer’s Market in Kirkwood in years. If you are ever in the Firehouse Run, Allison makes pancakes for the post-race pancake breakfast.
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